D.C. city has the fastest growing rat population in the country, according to a study last year. Some city leaders are trying to cut that population by eliminating a favorite rodent hangout.
Trash cans along the city’s sidewalks don’t have lids. D.C. Council member Christina Henderson said that’s allowed garbage to become a “buffet” for rodents.
“All they got to do is climb up the side, which they’re easily able to do, and hop right in and enjoy” Henderson told WTOP.
Henderson and several other council members are sponsoring a bill, the Public Trash and Recycling Container Budgeting Act of 2026, which would require replacing the open-top public trash cans with ones that are front-loading, secure and “rodent-resistant.”
The proposed cans cost around $2,500, according to Henderson. Under the legislation, the city wouldn’t plan to replace every trash can all at once, only when old ones need to be replaced.
“As we are updating our public infrastructure, we should go ahead and update the entire public infrastructure and public space, including rolling out new, modernized trash cans,” Henderson said.
Henderson said many of these cans, especially ones in quieter neighborhoods, don’t get emptied very often and pile up with garbage.
“I did a cleanup of one of the trash receptacles that was in my neighborhood … there was a dead rat that I picked up,” Henderson said.
A study published last year in the journal Science Advances found that due to warming temperatures in cities, rat populations are spiking. D.C. had the biggest rat population increase.
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